So Real It Looks Edible! A Complete Guide to Japan’s Amazing Food Sample Craft
The menu models lined up in front of restaurants are called “food samples,” a culture that originated in Japan. They work like a visual menu, displayed outside restaurants so customers can tell at a glance what a dish is like and how large it is. With glossy textures and a three-dimensional look that almost seems to give off steam, they look incredibly real, but many are actually made from a synthetic resin called polyvinyl chloride.